This exhibit represents
a collaboration of upper division art students and consists of two parts.
An informational display fills the 2nd floor gallery and explains the
nature of environmental and installation art and the process to create
the large sculpture that dominates the lobby area.

The
sculpture in the lobby represents a treelike structure, extending
through the ceiling opening to the 2nd floor and creates a canopy
and a feeling of being overwhelmed by plastics.

Artists Statement:

We are a group of artists working collaboratively
to create an art installation, which addresses both our ecological
and aesthetic concerns. Realizing that only a revolution in
thought can bring about effective change, we have turned to our
art as a means of bringing consciousness to others. The form
is created from our wastes; the plastic bags we use to carry groceries
in, the wrappers that keep our food fresh. Every day our trash
is rearranged so that we don't have to see it. This work was
created to be seen, in hopes that it will be a catalyst for
much needed change. It implies a larger issue, which needs
our attention, now.

"In weighing the fate of the earth
and, with it our own fate, we stand before a mystery, and in tampering
with the earth we tamper with a mystery. We are in deep ignorance.
Our ignorance should make us wonder, our wonder should make us humble,
our humility should inspire us to reverence and caution, and our
reverence and caution should lead us to act without delay to withdraw
delay to withdraw the threat we now pose to the earth and to ourselves."

- Jonathan Schnell, The Fate of
the Earth, New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1982, p.95.

We would like to thank the Western Oregon
University Foundation for the generous grant they provided for this project
and we also thank the following individuals for their support: Mike
Aguilera, Dr. Gary Jensen, Professor Suellen Johnson, Stephen Medley,
Jerrie Lee Parpart, Katherine Shears, Dr. Mark Man Steeter, Kenneth Tibbs,
and Carol Tripp.